The plant support of the present invention was devised to overcome a number of problems existing with conventional plant supports. For example, the ability to nest a plurality of plant supports compactly is a important feature with respect to shipping and storage of a plurality of plant supports.
During bulk shipment of an order of plant supports by an original equipment manufacturer, it is highly desirable to reduce the overall dimensions of the bulk shipment to reduce the costs involved in shipment and to meet the dimensional limitations of common parcel shipping organizations such as United Parcel Service (UPS). United Parcel Service sets a maximum dimensional limit for shipping packages of a length and girth not exceeding 130 inches. Eight plant supports according to the present invention, each having a length of 60 inches, a depth of 16 inches and a width at the open end of 16 inches, can be nested together and pack in a carton having a combined length and girth of less than 130 inches. When one unit is nested within another unit, the length of the resulting stack is increased by the diameter of the top attached horizontal element, and the depth of the stack is increased by the diameter of the rear vertical element or elements. The width of the nested stack remains the same regardless of the number of units nested.
The ability to nest used plant supports by an end user such as a novice or professional gardener is also especially important for storage during the fall and winter off planting seasons. Typically, after the growing season, the gardener prefers a compact nesting type of support to reduce the amount of storage space needed for successful storage thereof. Some conventional plant supports suffer with respect to nesting due to the inability or difficulty of nesting used plant supports of this type. For example, popular plant supports sold on the market today comprise circular so-called "cage" supports having three (3) or four (4) tapered vertical support wires having lower free ends that together are imbedded into the ground during usage and three (3) or four (4) horizontal cross wires welded or otherwise attached to the vertical support wires. The round supports generally have vertical support wires that are extremely tapered inwardly from top to bottom to provide nesting of a multiple number of units for shipment and storage. This popular support suffers nesting difficulties due to the free ends being bent during insertion into the ground and remain bent after removal at the end of the season. These bent free ends impede or prevent successful repeated nesting of a plurality of such plant supports from year-to-year. Further, the extreme taper required for nesting does not provide good stability of the unit when inserted in the ground and the small diameter of the lower horizontal wires is generally insufficient to properly enclose and support the lower branches of the plant. Also, the frictional and interference contact of the units so nested makes it difficult to remove a unit from a nested stack of units. In contrast, the unit according to the present invention requires little or no tapering of the vertical wires of the vertical support wires, and thus provides improved stability when inserted into the ground, and more enclosure and support area for the lower branches of the plant.
Another common plant support in use today is constructed from a section of concrete reinforcement wire having a square or rectangular wire matrix construction. The plant support is formed by bending a section of the reinforcement wire into a cylinder-shape and wiring the ends together to form a finished plant support unit. At the end of the planting season, these plant supports are generally left intact and stored side-by-side as separate units, since these plant supports cannot be effectively nested. As a result, a large storage area is required for such supports.
Another consideration in the successful use and implementation of a plant support is its cost of manufacture. This is a major factor that determines the potential use and affordability of large plant growers in the farming industry as well as the home gardener. The cost of a wire type plant support unit is dictated directly by its dimensions and the number of bends and welds necessary to complete each unit. The plant support according to some embodiments of the present invention reduces the number of bends and welds necessary to complete a finished unit.
In addition, as shown in several embodiments of the present invention, the partial closing or partitioning of the remaining open area of the support by inexpensive flexible cord, string, twine and tape (particularly stretchable tape) as well as non-rigid netting, etc., used in lieu of permanently connected rigid wire horizontal elements, reduces substantially the cost of the support. Such accessories, applied by the gardener at time of use, also provides other advantages which include eliminating and reducing the damage that would otherwise occur using rigid wire horizontal elements. Such damage is caused by the growth of the plant and the wind which results in the plant branches frictionally rubbing in contact with the rigid wire horizontal elements.
Such reduced manufacturing costs and operating advantages in combination with the ability to compactly nest a plurality of plant support units renders the plant support according to the present invention superior over conventional units.